It's like asking a vegan and a butcher to work together to improve the lives of animals
Comment made regarding the attachment the report has for the word "collaboration" when it isn't defined, and is completely alien in hospital-delivered maternity care. Many midwives work around obstetricians, many obs expect midwives to be their handmaidens, and the women don't get any continuity of care or carer in many cases.
The Australian article is here. And the actual review is here. I am appalled at stupid things like this:
The Review Team noted that a number of state and territory governments have developedprograms and policies to allow for publicly funded homebirths, under specific conditions. For example, New South Wales Health prescribes comprehensive requirements for homebirths, including safety, monitoring, evaluation, credentialing of the midwife and compliance with incident reporting requirements. While acknowledging it is a preference for some women, the Review Team does not propose Commonwealth funding of homebirths as a mainstream option for maternity care at this time. It is also likely that professional indemnity cover support for a Commonwealth funded model that includes a homebirth setting would be limited, at least in the short term.
Meaning that as of next year, homebirth will be illegal as you would have to have indemnity insurance (the type of insurance that professional medical officers like OBSTETRICIANS have because the Government SUBSIDISES it and therefore it is available to them - two things that are not the case for midwives) (ie it's NOT AVAILABLE and if it was, it'd be heinously $$$ and not suited to midwives anyway).
Remind me to get pregnant in the next 3 months so I can birth at home with a midwife of my choice, without her working illegally.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
It's the economy, stupid... or the stupid economy?
The economic meltdown is yet to really hit here in Australia - there's bits and pieces about it affecting a shift at the car manufacturer here, (but that is probably because they insist on making big V6 cars here in Adelaideand making the much more sensible in oh so many ways smaller cars overseas) or a mine here, or an exporter here, but as yet it's not Really Hit Home. I find the web is therefore a REAL eye opener about people losing their jobs suddenly and horribly for that reason.
Comments around various blogs about the manufacturing issue with the USA - applies here too. We lost our entire clothing/footware manufacturing not that long ago, and not only did we lose the skills but there was also a move away from blue collar work being available to people, and towards people having no choice but to be unemployed because they can't (or granted, won't) do the work available.
In some ways I agree with the throwaway comments being made about "bring on another depression". People are soft. They don't know how to cook, or sew, or grow, or look after animals, or bake, or live communally, or raise children, and that means they are chasing something unreal and "higher" and ?more laudible than making a home and family work.
I just read a rambly post about this topic from the perspective of Gen X. It talks a lot about the change that people are making to going back to their hearth and raising children and running on one income rather than outsourcing childcare and food making and clothes construction, and chasing a bigger house and a second car and more and more debt. So many things have been outsourced and that makes us all very vulnerable when the economy contracts and people aren't able or willing to do those things.
And I include myself in all of this - I rely on society to do things for me that I don't want to do. Society is about that at a basic level (we can't do everything for ourselves!) but it costs money to do that, and it costs more for Jane to do x for me than it would me for to do said x for me, so there is an inflation involved in that. As more things are outsourced, I have to earn more or rack up more debt to get the same things as before, and so I am now living beyond my means. Multiply that by the whole economy and we're suddenly screwed. And there will be a day/year/decade of reckoning of this and it's going to hurt.
Where are the communes these days? Not so much in the free love kind of way, but in the "farm with workers" or the "boarding house with employees living in" or the "large house with family running it" etc. We live in way more space than we need or use and have spare rooms just in case, and a craft/yoga/study/library room that we use hardly ever and try to fill with stuff that we can't afford to have and don't use and so we spend more money that we don't have to entertain ourselves instead of reading a book or doing a workout or crafting.
And raising families - it takes a community to do this. An article I read recently suggested that what defines Gen X and Y from the previous generations is that we count our friends as or above families in terms of how much we see them and what we ask of them or do for them.
This also comes at the same time as peak oil is more part of the discussion, and people are worried about the impact that the reduction in cheap energy will have. I see so many of my friends getting bikes and scooters, and moving close to where they work, and reskilling, and embracing crafts and reuse/recycling/repurposing, and living in share houses even when in adult years.
I am trying to work through what this means for having a family plans in the next year or so as well. If the economy does implode here, I am relatively safe as I will always be able to find work. I can't say the same for many of my friends and family though, which is distressing.
Comments around various blogs about the manufacturing issue with the USA - applies here too. We lost our entire clothing/footware manufacturing not that long ago, and not only did we lose the skills but there was also a move away from blue collar work being available to people, and towards people having no choice but to be unemployed because they can't (or granted, won't) do the work available.
In some ways I agree with the throwaway comments being made about "bring on another depression". People are soft. They don't know how to cook, or sew, or grow, or look after animals, or bake, or live communally, or raise children, and that means they are chasing something unreal and "higher" and ?more laudible than making a home and family work.
I just read a rambly post about this topic from the perspective of Gen X. It talks a lot about the change that people are making to going back to their hearth and raising children and running on one income rather than outsourcing childcare and food making and clothes construction, and chasing a bigger house and a second car and more and more debt. So many things have been outsourced and that makes us all very vulnerable when the economy contracts and people aren't able or willing to do those things.
And I include myself in all of this - I rely on society to do things for me that I don't want to do. Society is about that at a basic level (we can't do everything for ourselves!) but it costs money to do that, and it costs more for Jane to do x for me than it would me for to do said x for me, so there is an inflation involved in that. As more things are outsourced, I have to earn more or rack up more debt to get the same things as before, and so I am now living beyond my means. Multiply that by the whole economy and we're suddenly screwed. And there will be a day/year/decade of reckoning of this and it's going to hurt.
Where are the communes these days? Not so much in the free love kind of way, but in the "farm with workers" or the "boarding house with employees living in" or the "large house with family running it" etc. We live in way more space than we need or use and have spare rooms just in case, and a craft/yoga/study/library room that we use hardly ever and try to fill with stuff that we can't afford to have and don't use and so we spend more money that we don't have to entertain ourselves instead of reading a book or doing a workout or crafting.
And raising families - it takes a community to do this. An article I read recently suggested that what defines Gen X and Y from the previous generations is that we count our friends as or above families in terms of how much we see them and what we ask of them or do for them.
This also comes at the same time as peak oil is more part of the discussion, and people are worried about the impact that the reduction in cheap energy will have. I see so many of my friends getting bikes and scooters, and moving close to where they work, and reskilling, and embracing crafts and reuse/recycling/repurposing, and living in share houses even when in adult years.
I am trying to work through what this means for having a family plans in the next year or so as well. If the economy does implode here, I am relatively safe as I will always be able to find work. I can't say the same for many of my friends and family though, which is distressing.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Plastic bags - or "Why I may need an asbestos suit to post this"
I went food shopping yesterday and bought a lot of groceries as I also made-to-freeze 4 lasagnes, 3 quiches, 2 custard tarts and some jam tarts, as well as hosting a Hottest 100 Aussie Day bbq today. I purposefully took no reusable shopping bags with me because I wanted to stock up on plastic bags. I got some filthy looks from the checkout chic because of this so I feel like posting about my position on bags.
The average plastic bag is repurposed when you get home with it - you use it to line little bins around the house, to take lunch to work in, to put wet bathers in after the beach or pool, to pick up dog poo, and so on. What is going to happen to these parts of our life when bags are phased out?
Giving up the plastic bag is simple and pathetic and ineffective and such a lovely case of greenwashing. If the reasons people were saying to ban plastic bags actually had anything to do with the impact that they have on marine life, then I'd be all ears and would bang that drum! But most people are completely unaware of the impact that these have, because the 6 pack plastic beer can holders have been phased out here in Australia and few people think it's a problem anymore.
And for that matter - what do you think the reusable bags are made out of? They are made out of plastics. If they're made from recycled plastic, then that's a lot of energy and water involved in recycling plastic into something else. The bags also have to be shipped from point A (you) to point B (depot) to point C (consolidation) to point D (export) to point E (recycling) to point F (packing) and back to you... which is a bigger impact on greenhouse gasses than just using more bags. And then consider that a plastic bag and a reusable bag hold around about half and twice the amount respectively, but the reusable bag weighs more than twice the others and is BIGGER, so transport costs are higher anyway!
Precisely how green are these things then? Not very, I think.
On the other hand, by removing plastic bags from every shop, you are perhaps forcing more people to think about their impact on the environment. In theory, anyway, as your average pleb is completely ignorant to peak oil, or the impact we are having on biodiversity or resilience in our environment. Removing bags isn't going to reduce consumption, but will increase the amount of $$ we are spending on appearing to be conscious of our impact.
The average plastic bag is repurposed when you get home with it - you use it to line little bins around the house, to take lunch to work in, to put wet bathers in after the beach or pool, to pick up dog poo, and so on. What is going to happen to these parts of our life when bags are phased out?
- Take away the small bins and just use one large on in the kitchen, still lined with a plastic bag. Increase use of plastic bags as we won't reduce our volume of rubbish, but just concentrate it in one place.
- Get a bag of some description to take lunch to work in. Decrease frugality as these will wear out, and will need maintenance and cleaning, and may get lost / left behind.
- Wet items need coralling still, so more consumption to replace this use.
- Dog poo collection drops as people (who from my observation are RUDELY incapable of collecting their dog's turds anyway) reduce the amount of poo that is collected unless they are near a bin (which have been removed because they are terrorist threats) and aren't carrying a pooper scooper.
Giving up the plastic bag is simple and pathetic and ineffective and such a lovely case of greenwashing. If the reasons people were saying to ban plastic bags actually had anything to do with the impact that they have on marine life, then I'd be all ears and would bang that drum! But most people are completely unaware of the impact that these have, because the 6 pack plastic beer can holders have been phased out here in Australia and few people think it's a problem anymore.
And for that matter - what do you think the reusable bags are made out of? They are made out of plastics. If they're made from recycled plastic, then that's a lot of energy and water involved in recycling plastic into something else. The bags also have to be shipped from point A (you) to point B (depot) to point C (consolidation) to point D (export) to point E (recycling) to point F (packing) and back to you... which is a bigger impact on greenhouse gasses than just using more bags. And then consider that a plastic bag and a reusable bag hold around about half and twice the amount respectively, but the reusable bag weighs more than twice the others and is BIGGER, so transport costs are higher anyway!
Precisely how green are these things then? Not very, I think.
On the other hand, by removing plastic bags from every shop, you are perhaps forcing more people to think about their impact on the environment. In theory, anyway, as your average pleb is completely ignorant to peak oil, or the impact we are having on biodiversity or resilience in our environment. Removing bags isn't going to reduce consumption, but will increase the amount of $$ we are spending on appearing to be conscious of our impact.
- And as as aside, at The House of Bun, we have not had bags for 4 or so years, and sell reusable bags (the green ones rock as they are huge and have a reinforced bottom and are square based, whereas the red ones are like a beach bag / tote in construction) bags but still have people bitch about not having bags. We have boxes that are availbale to any customer to pack their purchases in, and still people bitch because they don't have a bag to put things in. But funnily enough, we do get a lot of people who are moving house and want to come to us to get free boxes to move in. I can remember doing that when I first moved house 10 years ago, and now no other store has a box coralle at the front of the store for boxes. Will we see a return to this?
Friday, January 23, 2009
Food ponderings
I live in the Amazing Adelaide, and within a few km of where I live, I have a Foodland, the Central Markets, and the Farmer's Markets. We shop for and eat fresh food most of the time (though of 21 meals a week, we eat out maybe 4 times a week? Monday night, Tuesday night, Saturday morning, and maybe a lunch), and prepackaged food is definitely a treat around here. I have mad cooking skillz (tm) and TheMan makes a mean sandwich and salad (two things which I hate to make but love to eat) and even my quasi-instant food is fabulous! I am a student and ManFriend works hard to support both of us, and so we don't eat spectacularly fancily or at the top end of the range - but we do eat well, and eat vegetables and vegetarian more often than not. We eat on a budget and it can be a bit dull by some measures, but we eat regularly and Identifiable Food.
But I'm currently watching Jamie's School Dinners and am kind of horrified.
Actually - I am freaking horrified. The kids on here eat crap, 5 days a week. (I say this as I'm heating up chips and fish fingers for the first time in abut 6 months, because I feel like it). But the school dinners (lunch) is actually the main meal of their day and many of them eat even more poorly at home. Many of them have no idea what vegetables are - as in, hold up a vegetable and they don't. know. WHAT. they are. No idea what an onion looks like, or what rhubarb or asparagus is.
Ok yes, I know that the video is completely edited to prove a point, and the ones that the kids got right probably weren't shown. But it is scary when you watch what the kids are eating every day.
Jamie fed his daughters leftover chicken and veges with cous cous (? I think) and pureed veges, and his daughters are aware of Food at a very young age, whereas the school children don't seem to have been exposed to foods, so I can see that as a simple pathway to exposing kids to food. Cookies are a sometimes food. So are chips, and sausages, and processed meat, and custard and lots more. But seriously, these kids eat this stuff every day. Their packed lunches are no different which is inicative of their parents not having an idea. Which is even scarier to me because it means it's a generational thing.
The fact that there is a Constipation Clinic at the local hospital made me feel a little queazy. The x-rays of intestines was gross because these are KIDS. It is HEARTBREAKING to think of parents having kids that are in this kind of situation, and to think of their pain and the lack of quality of life and their future...
"If you're hungry, you'll eat" probably won't work on these kids. But that's the apporach that worked when I was a kid because I wasn't GIVEN another option. I was just given food and that's what was for dinner. It wasn't dramatic and wasn't an issue - it was what my parents ate and that was fine. But back then, there wasn't the advertising that there is these days around crap food and fast food and instant food. That is a huge challenge to parents to get involved in
But the last thing I've noticed is that most of the people on this show don't like food. They don't love food in a tactile, get your hands in, slice that vegetable, massage that chicken, squeeze that tomato, sniff that herb. And I don't know how to teach that to people so my hat is off to Jamie for pursuing it.
But I'm currently watching Jamie's School Dinners and am kind of horrified.
Actually - I am freaking horrified. The kids on here eat crap, 5 days a week. (I say this as I'm heating up chips and fish fingers for the first time in abut 6 months, because I feel like it). But the school dinners (lunch) is actually the main meal of their day and many of them eat even more poorly at home. Many of them have no idea what vegetables are - as in, hold up a vegetable and they don't. know. WHAT. they are. No idea what an onion looks like, or what rhubarb or asparagus is.
Ok yes, I know that the video is completely edited to prove a point, and the ones that the kids got right probably weren't shown. But it is scary when you watch what the kids are eating every day.
Jamie fed his daughters leftover chicken and veges with cous cous (? I think) and pureed veges, and his daughters are aware of Food at a very young age, whereas the school children don't seem to have been exposed to foods, so I can see that as a simple pathway to exposing kids to food. Cookies are a sometimes food. So are chips, and sausages, and processed meat, and custard and lots more. But seriously, these kids eat this stuff every day. Their packed lunches are no different which is inicative of their parents not having an idea. Which is even scarier to me because it means it's a generational thing.
The fact that there is a Constipation Clinic at the local hospital made me feel a little queazy. The x-rays of intestines was gross because these are KIDS. It is HEARTBREAKING to think of parents having kids that are in this kind of situation, and to think of their pain and the lack of quality of life and their future...
"If you're hungry, you'll eat" probably won't work on these kids. But that's the apporach that worked when I was a kid because I wasn't GIVEN another option. I was just given food and that's what was for dinner. It wasn't dramatic and wasn't an issue - it was what my parents ate and that was fine. But back then, there wasn't the advertising that there is these days around crap food and fast food and instant food. That is a huge challenge to parents to get involved in
But the last thing I've noticed is that most of the people on this show don't like food. They don't love food in a tactile, get your hands in, slice that vegetable, massage that chicken, squeeze that tomato, sniff that herb. And I don't know how to teach that to people so my hat is off to Jamie for pursuing it.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Brief update as my shoulder is sore today...
6 weeks post op. So dot points will have to suffice:
More photos on Flickr as always (and there are mousse photos as well!).
And I've cast on an I Do:
Cat sitting has been organised.
Not sure what else to say really - it's kind of organised, very fun to sort out an o/s trip, but otherwise pretty easy :). Eloping is fun!
- Saw the surgeon on Monday. I got another gold star for progress and more admonition to slow down and take it easy. Which is funny because I'm hardly doing the exercises I've been given, and I am still so freaking frustrated with the lack of what I *can* do that I'm hardly pushing what I can do.
- On the upside, I can drive again (YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY
AYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY) and go back to work (yay) next week. I can now do all range of movements, which means I can focus less of don't.do.that and more on the woah protect yourself feeling. Which is fine, but still frustrating. - Unfortunately, when my shoulder gets sore, the rest of my symptoms come back. Sore neck, amazingly painful spot in my trapezoid, pain down hand, sore spot on ribs... and it makes me want to wail because it is SCARY to know that that pain is still there, just out of reach and view. And I am heartbroken to say that I'm having to face up to the realisation that is slow in coming - that no one is going to fiz me. I have to work through the next 12 months of inflicting pain on myself and pushing myself and encouraging myself to be the bext that I can be.
More photos on Flickr as always (and there are mousse photos as well!).
And I've cast on an I Do:
as my wedding day is just 10 weeks away and you know, as it's in New Zealand in April, I wanted something extra to go with my dress. We've set a date - for April Fool's Day (01/04/09) (or 04/01/09 for those in North America!). Anyone who knows us will say "yup that's perfect for you" and those that don't will be aghast, and also be horrified that we firstly wanted to do it on Friday 13th but that's in March (too soon) or November (too far) so AFD it is.
I've gone ring shopping, which was REALLY fun and scary because I've never Shopped Specifically For Jewelry before, ya know? The e rings don't count as I was nervous at that stage and just chose what I loved whereas this time around I'm not as nervous. ManFriend isn't wanting another ring at this stage so I've only had to find one for me. I'm thinking of getting one made to "match" my e ring. Will let you know after the date I guess!
I'm wearing the same dress as I wore for my e party, though I'll want to make a shrug to go with it I think, and find some stockings to make it a bit more suited to the weather!
I've gone ring shopping, which was REALLY fun and scary because I've never Shopped Specifically For Jewelry before, ya know? The e rings don't count as I was nervous at that stage and just chose what I loved whereas this time around I'm not as nervous. ManFriend isn't wanting another ring at this stage so I've only had to find one for me. I'm thinking of getting one made to "match" my e ring. Will let you know after the date I guess!
I'm wearing the same dress as I wore for my e party, though I'll want to make a shrug to go with it I think, and find some stockings to make it a bit more suited to the weather!
Cat sitting has been organised.
Not sure what else to say really - it's kind of organised, very fun to sort out an o/s trip, but otherwise pretty easy :). Eloping is fun!
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